Every time a new Amos Oz book hits the shelves, it is news not only in Israel but worldwide. Newsweek writes, “Eloquent, humane, even religious in the deepest sense, [Oz] emerges as a kind of Zionist Orwell: a complex man obsessed with simple decency and determined above all to tell the truth, regardless of whom it offends.”

Well, in the beginning of March a new Amos Oz is coming out. The title in Hebrew is “harouzei ahyayim veamavet” which in English can be translated as “Rhyme/ Bead of Life and Death”. Oz is making clever use of the word “harouzei” which in English means both rhyme and bead.

The novel is about one night in Tel Aviv in the beginning of the 1980s. According to Oz’s editor Ronit Weiss- Burkowitz, “it is a refreshing and surprising book that deals with the virtue of observation.” Oz started writing this book three years ago but just managed to finish it. (Well, I am sure promoting one of his best novels “A Tale of Love and Darkness” has taken up a lot of his time. We strongly recommend reading it. You’ll get a great sense of Israel’s history through one its master storytellers).

A few things about the plot of the new book: the hero is a writer whose name is never shared with us and the events cover a time span of 8 hours. In the beginning of the book, the author meets the audience at a cultural center in Tel Aviv, but on his way there he roams around the streets of Tel Aviv and in his imagination he constructs the lives of the people he sees. He gives them life; he gives them names and biographies.

We hope the publisher makes quick work of the English translation.

For the original article in Hebrew click here